A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (by which I mean the next town over and about 26 years ago) I saw part of Star Wars (A New Hope to those who care about these things). And in my tiny little child mind, I saw Princess Leia in R2’s hologram thingy and I didn’t see a princess, I saw A WITCH. AN EVIL, BUNHEADED WITCH OUT TO GET ALL THE ADORABLE DROIDS (and probably Luke Skywalker too).

I couldn’t even tie my shoelaces, but I knew, KNEW this woman was the nemesis of the story.

To be fair, I *may* have gotten The Wizard of Oz mixed up with Star Wars in my wee brainpan. It’s also completely possible that I just totally mistook the whole thing; I thought that Leia was actually there, in Obi-Wan’s hut, just… you know. Tiny. And blue.

In my defense, I was five.

And pretty much scared of everything.

Seriously. One time a Garfield comic scared me so much I couldn’t sleep. If there was a spider that had been seen in the vicinity of my room in the last week, I wouldn’t sleep there (in my defense, SPIDERS, people. SPIDERS. Can you blame me?).

So when I was an older, wiser, and very sage ten year old, I saw A New Hope. My mind = blown. Not only was Star Wars COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AWESOME, but there were no flying monkeys! And Princess Leia not only wasn’t an evil witch with magical powers (and possibly 6 inches tall and blue), she was a sassy sassy lady with a laser gun.

The internet is amazing. Without it, I would never have known of the awesomeness that is Mandy Curtis. If you don’t know her, and you’re reading this blog (hint: you are reading this blog), then you need to go check her out.

Now get excited, because I just introduced you to a righteous nerd of the secret order of completely fantastic.

Now be jealous, because Mandy and I did a swap.

oooh, yeah. I gave a stranger on the internet my address and something amazing happened.*

a box came.

A glorious, giant, huge, hulk of a box came to my door, with my name on it. So I opened it.

dudes and ladydudes, I assure you, I am wearing those temporary tattoos like the badass I am. (Also I am sharpening my pencils and writing all my dreams and wishes in the notebook like the dork I am).

Awesome, a tesseract necklace so I have unlimited power, and a moustache necklace so I can be an agent in disguise! Genius! Also a teeny leetle Hawkeye to keep me safe! Wait… are those SHIELD and Avengers toddler shirts? I guess if you want your toddler to be the next Maria Hill** you have to start training them young. And Did I mention that Mandy SILKSCREENED THOSE HERSELF? Talent, people. talent.

Thor! And Loki! Now I can act out that scene in Thor on the rainbow bridge and then snuggle them both. And those mugs….. look at them. Just… look at them. I know someone who is crazy awesome enough to paint me EIGHT mugs and then mail them. In the mail. I didn’t realize until after I took those photo that one was missing! Black widow isn’t shown because this is currently happening:

Every day I get to imbibe coffee and the essence of another superhero! SCORE.

These two items I haven’t given nearly enough picspam to. A hulk tote, that has muthereffin back pockets on it! AHHHHHH!!! And, yes, I am the proud owner of a SHIELD agent hoody; with my name on the front (that’s agent Robotaday to the rest of you suckers). Seriously, I am wearing the shit out of that sweatshirt right now. AND YOU ARE ALL JEALOUS.

But it’s possible that this, this is my absolute favourite of the bunch. I mean, it’s kinda like picking your favourite flavour of coffee, or chocolate, or trying to decide which is better, sunshine or lollipops, but if I had to save one thing from this box from a burning building it would be this.*** Did I mention Mandy is amazingly talented? Oh I did? Well she is.

Also Loki talks if you squeeze him. He says “I AM A GOD!!”.

So internet, you are full of good things, and good people. I could’ve gotten a box of cat turds in the mail, but instead, I got a box of fantastic.

If you want to see the paltry offering I sent Mandy the god of awesome, you can check out her post about it here!

* um, I actually don’t recommend you give strangers anywhere your address. Do as I say, not as I do and all that.
** I was going to say Coulson, as he is made of awesome, but uh… spoilers and such. And then I was going to say Fury, but he’s got an eye patch and while I may tell my child that running with scissors will end in someone putting an eye out, I devoutly hope it doesn’t happen. Aaaaaaaaaaand…. no more scissors in my house.
***more lies. I’d save the sweatshirt and a coffee mug because I’d already be wearing and holding them. But assuming I had a free arm after grabbing my offspring, I’d grab this.

This week’s theme for Craft Corner Death Match was “Repetition”. As I get closer to my goal of 365 bots, I can’t help but remember what it was like back when I started and was doing 5 bots a week. Stressful at time, but so much fun! So many ideas! So many opportunities! Usually now when someone suggests something, I’ve already done it, or it’s so close to another one I don’t want to repeat myself. Of course this is a business too; and the number one thing people ask me is “Which bot is your most popular?”. So I give to you, in order from latest to oldest, the last fifty bots I’ve sold on my Etsy shop:

And that doesn’t even cover the whole last year! It’s not even really a true representation, because not all of my bots have been available for the last year or so; go back further and you’d see many others. I’m not complaining, I love making bots! But this whole repetition thing got me thinking, I make a lot of bots. Seems like a lot of repetition, but at the same time it’s really not. Also see the part that went dragon, dragon, cheese, dragon? That made me week. Seriously. You rock, dragon cheese people!

Being someone with skin so white it’s tranluscent, I am loathe to go outside in the summer and subject it to the sun’s rays. Other people tan, I just burn and turn white again. I can get a wicked sunburn just by thinking about sunshine.